Pre-pandemic, one of the many things I loved about being a business owner was the people all around the world it allowed me to meet. Business travel was something I did a lot. Likewise, I love travelling for pleasure, I always have, and my financial security has allowed me to see so many wonderful corners of the world – creating memories I will treasure for ever.

I totally understand the need we all have get back to ‘normal’. For lots of us, this means a summer holiday. It is something that, as Brits, we have become accustomed to. As regular as clockwork each spring and summer (and often autumn and winter!) we will jet off to sunnier climes. I can’t wait to be able to do this again. However, I do feel that at the moment we should try and put this out of our minds – for a number of different reasons.

Firstly, and rather encouragingly, Britons have managed to saved billions of pounds during the various lockdowns. Estimates differ slightly depending on which source you go to, but it appears to be up to the value of £250 billion…. an astonishing amount of money! I’m all for supporting tourism abroad, but to me it seems to make so much more sense for us to try and spend that money in the UK. This could go towards supporting our hotels, restaurants, museums, galleries and resorts get back on their feet. Then of course, there’s the practical and logistical problems associated with travelling overseas during a pandemic. As we’ve seen recently with Portugal, a country can be green list one day, and then amber (or red even!) the next. Nothing is certain and any travel outside of the UK at the moment has a certain amount of doubt (and even slight anxiety) attached to it. The Delta variant arrived because the government was too lax, and it is only a matter of time before something else could arrive that destabilises our freedoms (and our economy) by sending us into another lockdown again.

Of course, we are all able to make our own decisions and what is not a priority to one person may be vital to another – so we have to be understanding about everyone’s needs. But for the time being I think we should just crack on and enjoy our lives as much as we can without the hassle and drama!